What It’s Like to be a [successful] Startup CEO
As a Startup CEO or mentor to over 20 companies over the past 20+ years, I’m often asked “What It’s Like to be a Startup CEO?” What they really mean is what is it like to succeed as a CEO?
As the mentor I draw on my own experiences to empathize, coach, help, counsel and help CEOs develop their business and the futures of the people that help them. I think the first question is “What is the CEO going through?”.
As I spend a lot of time these days working as a developer, an entirely different discipline than the CEO role, I gain respect for how different these two roles are. So I thought I’d share my thoughts on the CEO role.
What is the startup CEO going through?
If you’re doing it right, being the CEO of a startup is crazy, fun, very hard work, inclusive, humbling and of course can be quite rewarding.
Weekends are meaningless. Your friends and family look at you strangely — admiring yet frustrated by your obsession. Unlike the media image of the easy going CEO who effortlessly raises millions while bonding with everyone around him/her while continuously scaling, the day-to-day reality is much more grueling and mundane.
There is a continuous decision stream where each decision informs the next. Your mind is thinking 24 hours a day, even when you sleep. Demands for your time are constant. Happy, sad, sleep is a common pattern.
3 FULL TIME JOBS.
When you’re the CEO of a real early stage startup with product and some cash on hand and/or revenues, but life is intense. There are 3 FULL TIME JOBS you must perform simultaneously. There are some lulls and many fun times, but not much.
The 3 jobs:
Job #1. Raising Money — You are constantly doing this, preparing for this and thinking about this, whether it’s pre-seed, seed funding, arranging debt, worrying about revenue, pushing partnerships, preparing for IPO or so many other money issues. Getting one round of funding is much easier (or luck) than continuing the process for years and meeting increasing expectations.
Jobs #2. Managing and Properly Growing The Business — This includes several things, depending on the size of the enterprise. Managing employees, paying attention to administration, hiring, firing, approving leases, managing expenses, helping unhappy people, fixing other problems, etc. are a continuous stream.
Failing at this part of the job is what often kills an otherwise great business. This justifys the case for “less is more” when it comes to number of employees and infrastructure.
Job #3. Selling — The CEO of a startup must ABS, always be selling. You start every day working this, and just like #1 above, they’re closely related. Using the CEO to close sales no matter what size the business is, is vital to success.
This requirement emphasizes the importance of having an awesome, mature head of sales — it frees up precious time for the CEO. It takes a lot of pressure off — do this early if you can.
As a CEO I’ve had a few nice outcomes, but it’s rarely ever a straight smooth line. Be ready for that.
The Mentor
Does a startup CEO need a mentor? More than one. Again I’m referring to a real startup, not a person who just puts that title on their LinkedIn and launches a simple website.
As a mentor to several startups, I’ve watched and coached many CEOs successfully through the growth process. The job of the mentor is to make sure everything progresses forward and your protege stays out of the ditches. It requires strong mutual trust — if you have that, it can be a rewarding win-win experience. The mentor is also a private counsel for the CEO who is not part of the management team or family or an investor. Investors often play this role but that’s never ideal; they can have opposing interests to the CEO.
So yes, all CEOs should have one or more mentors, no matter who they are or how much experience they have.
Bottom Line
In short, you must respect the functions of the job as well as the glory and title. Too many CEOs fail because their ego is leading their thinking.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I had no idea how different the CEO role is until I actually spent a few thousand hours practicing a different job.
Admittedly, this topic deserves a much larger discussion. If you’re a startup CEO reading this or about to be a startup CEO for a real startup, feel free to contact me to discuss your company.
My LinkedIn | twitter: @tomnora
